284 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Stray Straws 



De. C. C. Millee, Marengo, 111. 



Destroying the capped cells to prevent 

 swarming is advocated, p. 212. But would 

 not that require vei'y close watching? for 

 are we not told that a colony swarms when 

 the first cell is capped? 



Mr. Editor^ you say, p. 246, that parcel- 

 post packages of honey can't go outside of 

 the mail-sacks. May be they can't, but they 

 do. At least the case of honey I sent to 

 Chicago went that way. Matter of " local- 

 ity," eh? 



Time was, and not a hundred years ago, 

 when a beekeeiner's success was measured 

 by the number of swarms that issued. Now 

 there is a niche in the hall of fame aAvait- 

 ing the man who will give us a profitable 

 way to j)revent swarming in all cases. 



How nice it would be if you could just 

 divide a colony into two, three, or more 

 parts without having most of the bees go 

 back to the old stand ! Well, you can do 

 that very thing if you take a colony from 

 the home apiary to an out-apiary. Then 

 you can bring another colony from the out- 

 apiary and divide it up in the home apiary. 

 Of course, if you have no out-apiary you 

 can shut up the bees for about three days, 

 or you can close the entrance with green 

 leaves or gi-ass and let the bees dig their 

 way out. [You are right. — Ed.] 



J. L. Byer, your head's level in that talk 

 about syrup vs. honey, p. 253; and I ven- 

 ture to say that in five years j'ou'll go still 

 further and say that, even for wintering, 

 syrup does not equal Al honey. [What do 

 you mean here, doctor? Do you mean that 

 an Al honey is suiDcrior, irrespective of 

 quantity, to sugar syrup? Perhaps you are 

 right, but we would suppose that you will 

 have not only Mr. Byer but the whole fi-a- 

 ternity against you. However, we all agTee 

 with Mr. Byer that a pound of sugar syrup 

 in the feeder will not last as long as a 

 pound of honey sealed in combs. — Ed.] 



For half a century there is no one thing 

 in beekeeping I have fought more bitterly 

 and persistently than the swarming nui- 

 sance. I don't believe any plan is knoAvn 

 that will entirely prevent all swai'ming if 

 colonies are kept strong. But you can come 

 so near to it that it will hardly pay to watch 

 for the few swarms that will run away. 

 You can work for extracted honey, and give 

 abundance— not plentj^, but abundance — 

 of room for the queen, and also for the sur- 

 plus, gi\dng much ventilation at each story. 

 Or, especially if working for sections, you 

 can exchange the old queen for a young 



one at the beginning of the swarming sea- 

 son. 



G. W. Demaree, a Kentucky beekeeper, 

 some years ago gave a plan for prevention 

 of swarming that is simple, and has proved 

 successful in the hands of manj^ who work 

 for extracted honey. When swarming-time 

 comes, put the queen in the lower story 

 with one frame containing a little brood, 

 and fill up the hive with combs or founda- 

 tion. Over this put an excluder, and over 

 the excluder a second stoi'y with the rest of 

 the brood. Ten days later kill cells in up- 

 per story. These upper combs will now 

 become extraeting-combs. [The secret of 

 this lies in giving the queen egg-laying 

 room. The principle is correct. — Ed.] 



When running for extracted honey it 

 hel^DS against swarming to have the stories 

 "stuttered;" the second story shoved for- 

 ward to make ventilation at the back, the 

 third story shoved backward to make venti- 

 lation at front, and so on alternately. Even 

 for comb honej^ I like ventilation at back 

 between hive and first super. [This plan is 

 all right when working with ordinary Ital- 

 ians or common hybrids — that is, a cross 

 between Italians and black bees. We tried 

 it out very thoroughly last summer with an 

 apiary of Carniolans. While it checked 

 their swarming it did not stop it. In fact, 

 we do not believe there is any device or 

 method known that will stop Carniolans 

 from swarming if they once get started. 

 This one Carniolan apiaiy gave us more 

 trouble from swarming than all the rest of 

 our apiaries together. — Ed.] 



I ARISE, reluctantly, to say to beginners 

 who think of increasing by the Alexander 

 plan as given in ABC and X Y Z that I 

 don't believe there's one locality in a hun- 

 dred where the plan will pan out as there 

 represented. In my locality it would make 

 the increase all right, but it would make a 

 bad dent in my honey crop instead of near- 

 ly doubling it. If your bees have a reliable 

 buckwheat harvest of thousands of acres, 

 and you want at least part of your crop ex- 

 tracted, then go ahead. [You are probably 

 correct for your locality; but you will re- 

 member that Mr. Alexander places strong 

 emphasis on stimulative feeding. And you 

 Avill remember that his main honey crop did 

 not come on till about the first of August or 

 later; so, therefore, what might work with 

 him might be a failure with you, where 

 your honey-flow comes on about the first or 

 middle of June, and closes about July 1. — 

 Ed.] 



